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Welcome to episode 1 of the Nerd Journey Podcast [@NerdJourney]! We’re John White (@vJourneyman) and Nick Korte (@NetworkNerd_), two VMware Solutions Engineers who are hoping to bring you the IT career advice that we wish we’d been given earlier in our careers. Today’s episode discusses career advancement (Committing to it and Evaluating Options) and Nick’s first week at VMware!

Original recording date: 2017-12-10

Topics

2:41 – Committing to Career Advancement

• Search for and find your local VMUG (VMware User Group)
• Global VMUG UserCon Schedule
• Before you commit…
  • Think about the current state of your role (the good, bad, and ugly)
  • Think of what your dream career might look like and consider the gaps between the dream and your current environment
• How do you make the commitment to yourself?
  • Accountability required
  • Emotional commitment vs. time commitment
  • Start in small time increments
  • Do something regularly

16:36 – Evaluating Options for Advancement

• Talk to others about career and background
• Does advancement mean switching companies / switching jobs?
• Dom Delfino says “be great right now.”  Listen to the Geek Whisperers episode about this.
• Is being overloaded at the office getting in the way?
• Open SE positions at VMware

23:52 – Nick’s First Week at VMware

• What is the difference between vendor life and SMB IT life?
  • Onboarding
    • Learning platform
    • Socialcast
    • Workspace ONE
  • Transition to SE from internal IT
    • Solving the problem vs. helping to get the problem solved
    • What will Nick change in his extracurricular activities because of the change in role?
      • Leveraging Spiceworks, MangoLassi
    • How did John approach online communities after coming to VMware?